Cornbread salad

With cookout season rapidly approaching, this cornbread salad is a great side to bring to any cookout. Just about a dozen ingredients, a few shortcuts, and this dish can be put together in almost no time. It makes a great summer twist of the traditional Mexican 5-layer dip. Serve it as a side or with chips and salsa for dipping.

Found this recipe in the latest Food Network magazine.

Ingredients:

4 plum tomatoes, chopped

1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1/4 cup of fresh cilantro, chopped

salt

1 cup of sour cream

1/4 cup of mayonnaise

2 scallions, sliced thinly

juice of 1/2 a lime

1/4 teaspoon of chili powder (or more if you want more heat)

2 cups of crumbled cornbread (I made corn muffins, and used 4 of them for the salad, but you can certainly buy a pre-made cornbread and save some time)

30 ounces of black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed (I never use black-eyed peas, so this was a chance to use them, and now I will look around for more recipes to use them in)

1 cup of frozen corn, thawed (about 1 minute in the microwave)

1 cup of shredded Mexican or cheddar cheese

In a large bowl combine the tomatoes, bell pepper, corn, cilantro and salt.

In a second bowl, whisk together the sour cream and mayo. Add in the scallions, lime juice, chili powder and salt. Whisk to combine.

To assemble the salad we used a triffle dish, but any large bowl would work. You could also serve it in a deep aluminum pan, which I always find as a nice party trick, that way you don’t have to worry about forgetting your dishes at the party, and save on the number of dishes to do. Put half of the cornbread on the bottom of the dish. Top with 1/2 the black-eyed peas, then half the corn and tomato mix. Finally add 1/2 of the sour cream and shredded cheese. Top with some more fresh cilantro. Repeat the layering, finishing with shredded cheese. Place in the refrigerator for an hour to allow the salad to set and the flavors to blend.

We served this as a main dish, topped with some fresh jalapeno, delicious!